Suzanne Downing: JKT says ‘remain curious.’ Alaskans should be curious about his actual judgment

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Oct. 27, 2026 – Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins put on a headscarf and ridiculous sunglasses at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention and play-acted the role of an older Native “auntie,” dispensing advice. He was kind of drag queening it as a Native.

His advice: “Remain curious.”

Well, now we are.

Curious about the judgment of a man who wants to govern Alaska but apparently thought dressing up as a Native auntie would help establish his qualifications. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate was giving “auntie advice” while wearing women’s accessories.

To my eye, it was cultural appropriation served with a helping of mockery of women. A headscarf, unserious sunglasses and a girlish performance, and suddenly a candidate gets to borrow the identity and authority of a Native auntie?

I found it disrespectful.

An auntie’s standing comes from relationships, responsibility, and years of showing up for people, not what’s  pulled out of a costume box. Or maybe this was JKT just celebrating Halloween early. It reminded me of the time Gov. Bill Walker pranced around in high heels at the old University Mall in Anchorage.

Imagine a Republican candidate putting on the same outfit and delivering the same performance as JKT. I suspect the news coverage would include solemn discussions of respect for culture, stereotypes, cultural sensitivity and whether the candidate had demonstrated the temperament to lead a diverse state. We would have heard about it from the Left for weeks.

Democrats should be held to that same standard.

But the costume is only the introduction to a more consequential question: What kind of experience prepares someone to be governor?

Bernadette Wilson’s leftist critics want voters to treat time in government as the principal qualification. That definition conveniently favors Kreiss-Tomkins, who left Yale without graduating to pursue elected office and spent a decade in the Alaska Legislature. Those years skipped over any real-world job experience.

Bernadette Wilson co-owns and manages a garbage collection business, work that involves risk, capital investment, employees, customers, equipment, and bills that must be paid whether the political climate is favorable or otherwise.

Running a business through the Covid economy meant confronting uncertainty and loss of revenue, with actual obligations still attached. Trucks still needed fuel. Customers still needed service. Families still needed income.

Kreiss-Tomkins’ pandemic experience included co-founding Covid Act Now, the organization that became known for its pandemic data and risk assessments — scaremongering.

JKT took part in fostering the Covid-era “scareconomy”: the political environment in which alarming projections could command attention while the costs of disruption landed on somebody else’s household or business. Businesses like Wilson’s.

Then there are the choices that will reach directly into Alaska households.

Wilson has defended paying the Permanent Fund dividend according to its statutory formula and has opposed new taxes. She has asserted that if the statute needs to be changed, it should be changed, but it should be followed.

Kreiss-Tomkins has criticized the existing dividend approach and supported additional corporate tax revenue, including taxing S corporations. In 2017, he voted for a state income tax.

For a family trying to cover heating fuel, groceries, and winter tires, the dividend is part of a household budget. A smaller check has consequences. So do policies that increase the cost of doing business.

Voters should examine those consequences before accepting the premise that a decade in Juneau makes someone better prepared than a woman who has had to keep a business operating through thick and thin.

And yes, they should examine the “Auntie JKT” performance, too.

What I saw was a candidate treating an older Native woman’s identity as an accessory for his campaign appearance. It struck me as immature, awkward ,and disrespectful. Alaska needs a governor whose judgment holds up. His does not.

Kreiss-Tomkins wanted us to remain curious.

We should be curious about his record, his donors, his tax proposals, and what his approach would mean for the family budget.

Above all, we should be curious about his judgment, or lack thereof.

Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.